importTiddlers doesn't work, am I missing something?

[VizSpeak]

I am new to Tiddlywiki. Came across it a week ago and fell in love
with the possibilities.
I have some coding experience (HTML and CSS), as I am a graphic
designer and part-time web designer.

I understand, from reading the most common tiddlywiki introduction and
help sites, that I should be able to import tiddlers from other
tiddlywiki files. The way I understand it is, to install a plugin is
the same process as importing regular tiddlers, the big difference
being that a plugin requires the 'systemConfig' tag. Please correct me
if this is incorrect. I have not been able to import any tiddlers or
plugins. the process I'm attempting is:

* Find the plugin you want and grab the url of the page it's on.
(Copy the url from your browser's search window).
* In your own TiddlyWiki file, click on ImportTiddlers, found in
the backstage area for versions 2.2 and beyond, and on the
InterfaceOptions panel in the righthand sidebar of earlier versions.
* Paste the url you've copied into the top window of the import
tiddlers tiddler that appears. Then click Fetch.
* A list of all the tiddlers found in the other file will appear.
Find the tiddler of the plugin you want, then check the box next to
it.
* Below the list is a menu that says "More actions..." Choose
"Import these tiddlers."
* Your screen will blink and change several times while your file
is being updated. If you have your TiddlyWiki configured to
automatically save every change (which is default), the box will
appear in the top right corner saying it has saved the change. If you
have it configured another way, then click on "save changes".
* Hit the 'refresh' or 'reload' button on your browser.
* The plugin should now be installed and usable on your file.
That's it!

Well, Thats not it! When I attempt this plugin install from
http://tiddlyspot.com/twhelp. I paste the url into the appropriate
place in importTiddlers and click 'fetch' I get an error message that
says: The page at http://viz.tiddlyspot.com says, Error in send
Permission denied to call method XMLHttpRequest.open
I thought that maybe I don't have permissions to import from that
file, even though I thought it was highly unlikely. So, I attempted
multiple times to import a regular tiddler from my other tiddlywiki
file and I get the same message. I also thought maybe there is just a
problem with importing over the net somehow, so I clicked 'browse' to
the file on my desktop and I get this message: The page at
http://viz.tiddlyspot.com says: Error in send [Exception... "Component
returned failure code: 0xc1f30001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED)
[nsIXMLHttpRequest.send]" nsresult:"0xc1f30001
(NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED)" location: "JS frame :: http://viz.tiddlyspot.com/
:: loadRemoteFile :: line 5021" data: no]
My next thought was to copy and paste the tiddler source for a
tagcloud plugin including the title and tag but when I click 'close' I
see this: Error in macro <<tagCloud>> I saved it to web and closed the
file. When I reopen my tiddlywiki file I have errors .......well, I
attempted again so I could copy the error message but I didn't get one
this time...........interesting..............the first time I did it I
got a message that said something like the first.............I just
went back to my file to see if there is still an error message on the
tagcloud tiddly but it's as if I didn't create
it.........weird.......... I checked my shadowed tags and its not
there, I checked the timeline and its not there either, and I searched
for it and nothing. I'm really confused now. That has never happened.

I've read instructions on how to do this over and over again and have
attempted importing tiddlers from other sites and other tiddlywiki
files I have downloaded and I get the same messages. Most of the sites
that I've seen that give instructions about how to import tidders say
that is so easy, but that has not been the case for me. I'm not really
sure if its something I'm doing wrong, if it's a problem with my
importTiddlers, or with the file I'm attempting to import from. I
would really appreciate it if someone could help me figure this out.

Envoirnment: Powerbook G4, OS 10.4.11, FF 2.0.0.4, MonkeyGTD 2.1 alpha
r91, http://viz.tiddlyspot.com

[Eric Shulman]

> The way I understand it is, to install a plugin is
> the same process as importing regular tiddlers, the big difference
> being that a plugin requires the 'systemConfig' tag. Please correct me
> if this is incorrect.

correct, but not complete... see below for more...

>I have not been able to import any tiddlers or
> plugins. the process I'm attempting is:

...
Your summary of the intended processes is correct. Note also that,
once you can install a plugin sucessfully, you might like to use:
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ImportTiddlersPlugin
which presents a highly-interactive "control panel" for importing
tiddlers, an provides extra features for selecting, tagging, and
logging the tiddlers you are importing.

> Well, Thats not it! When I attempt this plugin install fromhttp://tiddlyspot.com/twhelp. I paste the url into the appropriate

> place in importTiddlers and click 'fetch' I get an error message that
> says: The page at http://viz.tiddlyspot.com says, Error in send
> Permission denied to call method XMLHttpRequest.open

Ah hah!... A BIG clue: "http://viz.tiddlyspot.com"... This means that
you are viewing your document *online*.

Unfortunately, due to "cross-domain scripting security" (XSS)
restrictions, one online document is not allows to read the contents
of another document if that document is hosted on a *different*
domain. Thus, you can't import tiddler into "viz.tiddlyspot.com" from
a document hosted on "twhelp.tiddlyspot.com" (a.k.a., "tiddlyspot.com/
twhelp").

Fortunately, there IS a workaround: TiddlySpot provides a "proxy"
script that can make remote URLs *appear* to be on the same TiddlySpot
domain as your own document, thus allowing you to import. You need to
use a slightly different URL when importing through the proxy
script... check the TiddlySpot FAQ for more info on that...

> problem with importing over the net somehow, so I clicked 'browse' to

> the file on my desktop and I get this message: The page athttp://viz.tiddlyspot.comsays: Error in send [Exception... "Component

> returned failure code: 0xc1f30001 (NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED)
> [nsIXMLHttpRequest.send]" nsresult:"0xc1f30001
> (NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED)" location: "JS frame ::http://viz.tiddlyspot.com/
> :: loadRemoteFile :: line 5021" data: no]

Similar to the previous security problem... and even more fundamental
security issue: an *online* document is not allowed to read from the
*local* filesystem. In nearly all cases, such kinds of activity are a
Really Bad Thing.

Even so, it MAY be possible to enable remote-to-local access, by
configuring your browser's internal permissions. The method for doing
this (and the ability itself) varies from browser to browser... see
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#FAQ_BrowserSecurity
for a little bit of technical info for configuring javascript security
in FireFox.

> My next thought was to copy and paste the tiddler source for a
> tagcloud plugin including the title and tag but when I click 'close' I
> see this: Error in macro <<tagCloud>> I saved it to web and closed the
> file.

That's normal. As you've already noted, a plugin is a tiddler tagged
with "systemConfig". This indicates that the tiddler contains
javascript code that will be invoked each time you load your document
into the browser (i.e., "document startup"). Of course, you have to
*save* the file with the newly imported plugin tiddler before you can
reload it...

> When I reopen my tiddlywiki file I have errors .......well, I

> attempted ..... etc.

Not sure about these errors. It could be a result of using copy/paste
to add a plugin -- a process which is typically used as a last resort
(which is why you were trying it!), and is NOT recommended for
everyday use because it is notoriously prone to 'operator error'
resulting in corrupted tiddler content that doesn't work.

Even so, if you DO use the copy/paste process to install a plugin,
make sure you copy the *source* of the plugin tiddler, not the
*rendered content* (as displayed in 'view mode'). You should edit the
tiddler to see the source, and then copy the *entire* contents of the
tiddler's body text. Of course, after pasting this text into a new
tiddler in your document, don't forget to tag that tiddler with
"systemConfig", and then save-and-reload for the plugin to take
effect.

SUGGESTION:

The easiest way to get importing to work properly is to open your
document from your local filesystem (i.e., with "file://" in the
URL). You should then be able to import from ANY remote system, or
from locally-stored files, and then save-and-reload those changes
*locally* to test. When you are satisfied with the result, then you
can *upload* the revised document to your online TiddlySpot-hosted
account.

HTH,
-e
Eric Shulman
TiddlyTools / ELS Design Studios

[VizSpeak]

Thanks very much that helps me understand things a lot better.